Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 85:2 (Fall 2023)
Article: Pilgrimage Of The Son Of God: The Prophetic-Rhetorical Interpretation Of The Lukan Parable Of The Vineyard Tenants (Luke 20:9–19)
Author: Tsun-En Lu

Pilgrimage Of The Son Of God: The Prophetic-Rhetorical Interpretation Of The Lukan Parable Of The Vineyard Tenants (Luke 20:9–19)

Tsun-En Lu

Jesus’ parables are thought by many to have no precedent in the Hebrew Bible. This view is used for arguments to locate what some call the “parable genre” in the Hellenistic or postbiblical Jewish literary backgrounds, but it is incongruent with the portrayals of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels that draw ample and often intricate connections with the OT. A more reasonable explanation—at least in the minds of the Synoptic Evangelists—is that the rhetorical tradition of the OT prophets is seminal to Jesus’ parables, which are complementary to their portrayals of Jesus as the eschatological prophet. Luke’s peculiar collection of parables plays a unique role in the Evangelists’ portrayal of Jesus as the eschatological prophet. These parables are oracular, intentional, rhetorical, and profound. Luke conceives Jesus’ parables as prophetic instruments to communicate his agenda in an indirect manner and take his hearers by surprise. Luke considers the christological overtones of the parables, adapts them for interpretive clues, and weaves them into his narrative as part of his own rhetorical scheme of the Gospel.

This dissertation proposes a “prophetic-rhetorical” interpretation of the synoptic parables and offers a fresh interpretation of the Lukan parable of the vineyard tenants (Luke 20:9–19) as a test case. According to the macrorhetorical structure of the narrative scheme, Jesus’ journey from Galilee to the Jerusalem temple is painted as the pilgrimage of the Son of God coming to his Father’s sanctuary to reclaim his inheritance. According to the micro-rhetorical structure of the adapted shape of the parable, the vineyard story told in the temple serves as an allegorical synopsis of that story of Jesus and is employed to respond to his opponents’ challenge of his authority by simultaneously hinting at his concealed identity as the Son of God and his mission of becoming the ultimate agent of eschatological redemption and punishment.

Luke’s creativity lies in the subtle use of Ps 118 as the subtext of the pilgrimage theme of Jesus’ story. The significance of the pilgrim psalm is not disclosed until Jesus cites Ps 118:22 as the nimshal of the parable. Luke’s rhetorical scheme is concordant with his deliberation of Jesus’ prophetic agenda concealed in the parable—the typological pattern of the rejection-death-vindication-exaltation of the Davidic Messiah in the pilgrim psalm must be fulfilled in Jesus’ rejection, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus is the one who comes in the name of the Lord on his pilgr...